beetle leaves

Deepavali is a long festival. It starts on the 13th day and goes on until the fifth day after the new moon. Several legends are associated with this - the story of Rama, the story of Krishna, the story of Lakshmi, the story of Bali. The second day is for the brothers and the third day for the sisters. The fourth day is for the serpents (fertility rites) and the fifth day for the garuDa (to be free from snake bites). As a big brother (by age) in ikOlam, here is a present for all the younger and (may be very few) older sisters. You can see a sari designed by me with gorgeous mango borders and a paisley pallav, pEDA and murukku arranged symmetrically, coconuts, fruits, betel leaves and turmeric. Enjoy!

after seeing Subashini's green kolam I put this one with Coconut, manjal Vettrilai, paaku pazham and poovu.( dotted kolam ..13 -7 inbetween dots).
Pushpaji, see since the maavu was very watery I could not draw this neatly.

After viewing Smti Sumati's betel leaf arrangement, I wanted to create one. Unfortunately, as winter settles in, I don't have betel leaves. So the next best thing is, I got a "virtual" betel leaf and from that created many arrangements. I am enclosing this one as this resembles a familiar rangoli.